Forest Coffee Trading Company

With just four employees, Forest Coffee Trading Company is finding success and gaining a fan base, thanks to diligence, hard work and a true passion for artisanal coffee—including the company’s special CBD Cold Brew and fresh beans, which are available for purchase online, as well as throughout the Denver area and other parts of Colorado, at places like Whole Foods Market and Marczyk Fine Foods, as well as numerous local mom and pop coffee shops.

What truly makes this Cold Brew coffee special is the beans. Owner Olivia Kidd explained that the idea and concept came from her husband Garrett after a 2012 trip to Thailand. “He came across this village in northern Thailand called Chiang Rai,” she said. “The villagers told him that they used to be poppy farmers for opium until the government made it illegal decades ago, so they had to switch to become coffee bean farmers.”

Kidd said her husband was amazed by this story, and once he tasted the coffee, he knew he found something special. “He was just amazed at the flavor profile of the beans and wanted to know where he could find it in the U.S,” she said. “But he found out they didn’t import it into the U.S. So, when he came back, he was obsessed and convinced me about this coffee. We spent a year researching and learning about coffee, importing and learned as much as we could.”

Within three years, the Kidds had found a way to import these coffee beans from Thailand, but made a conscious effort to be direct traders. “We work directly with the village; there is no third party,” she said. “We have a closer relationship; our customers are getting a higher quality product. We have both been there. We can both with certainty say this is exactly where the coffee came from it’s all 100 percent handpicked, and it makes a difference.”

In 2019, Forest Coffee Trading Company is in the early phases of expanding regionally, according to Kidd. “We’re pretty much available only in Colorado, but we just got into a national distributor, so we will be soon available in New Mexico, Utah and other states in the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. Right now, we just sell coffee beans and Cold Brew.”

With this expansion comes the addition of CBD Cold Brew Coffee, which sees a partnership between Forest Coffee Trading Company and Evo Hemp. “Evo Hemp created a water-soluble CBD that is the coolest thing because there is no taste,” she said. The CBD is purchased from Evo Hemp and specially blended into the Cold Brew Coffee. “My whole concern was that it would [ . . . ] have an aftertaste, which it does not.” Kidd said Evo Hemp and Forest Coffee Trading Company share a similar business model as well. “They are a great company they direct trade their products like we do, so we have a lot in common.”

“People love the CBD Cold Brew. We get a lot of feedback [that] it’s a perfect combo of being mellow and having the energy to get your work done.”

Despite its size, Forest Coffee Trading Company sees huge potential and future for the company in the world of high-quality coffee beans and cold brew coffee. “Right now, we are the only single origin cold brew in this region,” Kidd said. “We are the top cold brew in most [of] the grocery stores we are located; our Cold Brew has a distinct flavor profile of cinnamon cocoa and dark berry, because it is from one place.”

These coffee aficionados have goals, and bringing CBD consumption and coffee culture together is among one of them. “I didn’t use too much CBD before,” said Kidd. “But this is perfect, because you get the energetic jolt from the caffeine, but the relaxing effects of the CBD, so it’s a nice balance. People love the CBD Cold Brew. We get a lot of feedback [that] it’s a perfect combo of being mellow and having the energy to get your work done.”

Kidd said that Forest Coffee Trading Company seeks to expand at the national level. “We have a goal to be in more retail chains and go national, we want people to find our coffee in California, Florida, Texas, New York and everywhere in between,” he said. “This includes all our coffees and CBD Cold Brews. We want to be known as one of the top cold brew producers in the country.”